Pittman, who worked in worldwide e-commerce for Apple, will
report to Devin Wenig, president of EBay’s marketplaces
division. In his new role, Pittman will be in charge of
development, improving consumer shopping experiences and other
additions to the site. Pittman’s product and design expertise
from his time at Apple will help at EBay, Wenig said.

“We’re starting to think about the next phase,” Wenig
said in an interview. “Product and design is going to be an
increasing focus of what we do, and a natural next step is
organizing in a slightly different way.”

EBay disclosed the new hire a day after issuing sales and
profit forecasts for the fourth quarter that fell short of
analysts’ estimates. The period is key for the San Jose,
California-based company given the amount of holiday shopping
that is increasingly taking place online. EBay shares dropped as
much as 6.2 percent today following the outlook.

EBay is combining groups that work on consumer experiences
while also combining those technology and data teams, Wenig
said.

At Apple, Pittman helped integrate the e-commerce operation
with the retail stores and led an international expansion team
that developed commerce in 38 countries. Before Apple, he worked
in a product-management group at Google Inc. (GOOG) and was chief
executive officer of e-commerce companies Groxis Inc. and
Digital Courier Technologies.